To Challenge Fate
by Dreadnought Jenkins
Summary: AU.Because one man chose not to die on the battlefeild, he wandered east and changed the course of history. Now naruto is a jounin, and having to deal with three kids and Kakashi is not his cup of tea.And he has a dark secret regarding one of his student
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto….unfortunately. The characters belong to their creator Kishimoto and some other people. The original characters in this series and the plot later on are mine.**

**To Challenge Fate**

**Chapter 1**

Four years after the death of the Yondaime, a young man wandered into Konoha. This man was quite young, sixteen at most. He should have been dead, but he wasn't. When given the choice, he had chosen life over death and thus he wandered far from his home in the west. His wanderings brought him to a prosperous village.

He knew its name but not much else. He knew only a few words of the native language but he did know its name. Konoha of the Fire Country. That was all he knew.

Standing at an impressive six foot three, he towered over the two guards that watched him with suspicion. They let him pass through though. The stranger was just too happy to be a possible threat. It went against all their good judgment but they let him pass.

The stranger continued into konoha and then proceeded to wander around the village like a lost sheep, a very blissful and happy lost sheep. Wandering from stall to stall, shop to shop, monument to monument and never truly understanding what they stood for, he smiled. He continued this for much of the day until near mid afternoon. He had no watch so he could not truly tell what time it was but he could tell that the small boy he came across was lonely. He watched to his distress as the boy tried to approach some of the other children but was shooed away by the other kids' parents. And so the young boy sat on a swing, all alone. The wanderer could not take it. He walked over to the boy on the swing.

Some of the other adults wondered what the stranger was doing. Didn't he know who the boy was? Only when the stranger started to push the boy on the swing were they truly shocked. They tried to call out to the oblivious stranger but he could not understand them. And so, by choosing life over death, a wanderer changed the fate of the world...

**Nine years later**

Iruka sat at his desk at the front of the classroom staring at the kids talk amongst themselves. It was extremely noisy. He stared up at the clock again. 8:33 it read. Then he realized something. The noise had quieted down considerably now. When the door started to creak open, it struck him.

_'Crap, crap, crap!'_ screamed Iruka in his mind. He knew he didn't have time to reach for his earplugs in his drawer so he did the only thing he could do. He put his fingers in his ears and braced himself.

"SASUKE-KUN!" came the cry of almost every girl in the class. Even with his fingers in his ears, the sound was so horrifyingly loud that Iruka swore he would go deaf if he had to bear this again. Fortunately for his hearing, it was graduation day. Still, Iruka silently cursed the Uchiha prodigy for being so abominably punctual, always arriving exactly at eight thirty three and even more so for being apparently immune to the eardrum shattering cries of his many fan girls.

"Sasuke, please take a seat." Said Iruka. Much to the disappointment of many girls, Sasuke took a seat beside Shikamaru (sleeping of course) and Chouji (and surprise surprise, eating out of a bag of chips). The class quieted down considerably as the girls contented themselves with admiring Sasuke and all the guys glared at Sasuke for stealing all the girls' attention.

When the bell rang, Iruka stood up and looked around the class. In part thanks to Iruka's anger being legendary, the class silently watched him. Iruka grinned.

"Congratulations everyone for passing the exam. I'm very proud of all of you." The class smiled at Iruka's words (with the notable exeption of Sasuke Uchiha). "So lets take attendance and then I can sort you into teams. Aburame Shino…" a hand was raised and so Iruka continued. After finishing his role call, Iruka explained how the teams were made, such as the best student and the worst student being paired, and all the other need to know information. After that, he started to call the team names and their members. He called out the teams and until he had reached team seven, nothing had been out of the ordinary. The first thing out of the ordinary was the reaction the names received.

"Team Seven will be," intoned Iruka, "Uchiha Sasuke (at the mention of his name, there seemed to be a large intake of breath by almost every girl in the class), Haruno Sakura (who screamed in delight (which countered the large sigh emitted by the rest of the girls)), and Kutsu Musha (a loud kuso could be heard from the back)." Iruka ignored the profanity and kept reading. Iruka took note of the fact of team sevens two senseis and promised to ask the Hokage about it later. After finishing naming off the teams, Iruka told them they had until noon to do what they wanted and that would be when their senseis would arrive.

Sakura just couldn't believe her luck. '_The god of love must be shining down on me. This just had to be fate, being placed on Sasuke's team. With him and me on the same team, I'll win him over for sure.'_ Most of her other classmates were leaving the room. She looked around until she found Sasuke in the corner. An evil, predatory look came into her eyes. Sasuke would be hers. The fact that they were on the same team was proof enough. Today, she would steal Sasuke' first kiss.

Sasuke, sensing something annoying approaching, decided it was time to leave.

Musha watched with amusement as Sasuke fled through the window. Sakura's cries of "Come back Sasuke-Kun!" made him laugh. Wrong move he realized. Sakura whipped around quickly at the sound of his laugh and when he saw her eyes, he felt the urge to bolt. In fact, he did bolt when Sakura rushed him quite unexpectedly. He barely avoided the near fatal beating he would have received had he been caught.

Musha couldn't believe his luck. He had shaken off Sakura without a single injury and he was now at the Ichiraku Ramen stand. Ramen wasn't his particular favorite, but as he had ducked in here to escape Sakura, he felt he owed the owner something. The brunette was slowly eating his Ramen, and as it was better than he had expected, he was considering getting another bowl. Musha was broken out of his reverie when a blond haired kid around his age sat down right beside him and yelled at the owner:

"Yo, old man, how about some Miso Ramen for your favorite customer." A minute later, the owner handed the blond his ramen with a big smile on his face.

"So your back Naruto, how was the ocean? Was it a good vacation?" he asked laughing.

"It was pretty good, but it rained too much for my liking." Naruto shrugged, "So what's new around here. The old man shrugged.

"Oh, nothing much…" he glanced at Musha and his eyes widened slightly, "Oh yah. The genin just graduated today." He made a gesture towards Musha and Naruto turned to look at him. As Musha himself turned to face Naruto and finally got a better look at his face. Naruto had spiky blond hair and three whisker like markings on each side his cheeks. His most notable characteristics, however, were his scars and his eye patch. He had two long scars. One ran across his face and over his nose and onto to the other side (much like Iruka-sensei's, thought Musha) while the other scar ran down the right side of his face. They were both interrupted by the eye patch that covered his right eye though Mushu could see the ends of each scar at the bottom and right side of the eye patch so he could only assume that the scars crossed each other. Naruto smiled at him.

"So your one of the new genin eh?" he laughed. "Well, that's great. I remember when I was…" he glanced at the clock. "Crap! I'm late for my meeting." He turned to his ramen and ate it all in ten seconds flat and cried out, "Sorry Old man, I'll be back later. Put it on my tab!" He was already out the door by the time he had finished his sentence. Musha looked at the time and seeing that it was now eleven thirty, he decided it was time to sneak back to the class room. He paid for his food and then left, still looking out for any sign of pink hair.

Sarutobi watched as Naruto slid into the room with seconds to spare and skidded to a stop. He looked at the clock and gave a sigh of relief. The clock had just struck eleven fifteen. "I glad to see your still punctual Naruto, but I see your also still in you vacation clothes." He said eying Naruto's baggy shorts and his loose tea shirt. Naruto stuck a hand behind his head and laughed nervously. "No matter though. You've got plenty of time between now and your next mission to get changed. You probably have around two hours at least. I want you in full uniform for this mission."

Though Naruto was shocked for a while on how quick he had been handed a mission, he was eager to find out its toughness. "So what rank is it?" he asked a little too eagerly.

The Sandaime grinned. "Well…it doesn't really have one." Seeing Naruto's puzzlement, he tossed him the scroll. "Here. Take a look for yourself." He watched Naruto's expression turn from excited, to puzzled, then to outright horror. He fought to control his laugh when Naruto screamed.

"YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT! I'M TOO YOUNG FOR THIS!"

Musha was pissed. That was a fine summary of what he was feeling at the moment. When all the other senseis had come to pick up the other teams at around noonish, Team seven's sensei had not shown up. That had been two hours ago. Musha was livid. He moved over to the door and looked out. Still no one. That's it, he thought walking over to the chalkboard, I'm gonna set a trap. He was moving towards the door when again when it slid open. Looking at the guy in the jounin vest, he realized who it was. It was that Naruto guy from the Ramen stand. Unlike last time though, he wore a jounin vest and his eyepatch was now an extension of his forehead protector. He smiled at them and gave a good old fashioned "Yo."

Before the shocked Musha could respond, Sasuke spoke. "Who are you?"

"Names Uzumaki Naruto and I'm your jounin sensei. Or, at least one of them I guess."

As Musha was still too flabbergasted to say anything, Sakura decided to ask the next questions on everybody's mind. "Our Sensei?" questioned Sakura, "Aren't you a bit young? You look like our age." Naruto laughed.

"Well, actually, I'm only thirteen." It was those words that confirmed Sasuke's suspicions about Naruto being a fraud. Sasuke gave one of his trademark smirks and said in an arrogant tone.

"Hey kid, why don't you hit the road. We're waiting for our real sensei here and I don't have time to spend on idiots like yourself." His voice took on a more threatening tone, "Now leave before I make y…" His speech spluttered out when he noticed Naruto had disappeared from where he had been previously standing. One second he was there, the next moment, he wasn't. He spun around when he heard the voice at his back.

"My my, aren't you the impatient one, and here I thought the heir to the Uchiha clan would be more perceptive." Naruto was grinning like a fool and Sasuke gritted his teath in frustration.

Sasuke growled and was about to throw a punch when a new voice cut in. "Naruto, I would prefer if you did not provoke the genin." Everyone turned to the door again to see the newcomer. He was probably in his mid twenties and had silver hair. He wore a black mask that covered the bottom half of his face and his forehead was tilted to cover his left eye leaving only one eye visible on his whole face.

"Ah. Kakashi-sempai, you're here. I'm glad. I was just introducing myself to the genin, but now that you're here, we can get the ball rolling."


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto … tragically. It belongs to Kishimoto and a number of other people. So don't sue me. I write this for entertainment purposes only, not for monetary gain. **

**Now on to other pressing matters. I like to write, but a writer likes to feel appreciated. So please don't sit on the fence and just read my story. If you can, write a review. The more reviews there are, the faster I feel inclined to write the story because few reviews make me question if my story is being read. Thanks a lot, now on to chapter two. **

**Chapter Two: Introductions**

Yogensha was the newcomer's name, as Sarutobi was soon to find out. At first, no one could understand a single word he said. The redhead could only speak a few words of Nihongo, like "hello" or "what time is it". Not something to have a conversation with. He seemed to be speaking his Native tongue and not one linguist recognized the language.

It was good news than that someone had the good sense to try talking Eigan to the foreigner. Yogensha seemed to be almost fluent in the language of the ocean people. He and the translator had engaged in a brief conversation before the Sandaime had been able to cut in. From there on in, it had been easy to get out the necessary answers out of Yogensha.

Oddly enough, Sarutobi wasn't sure of Yogensha's true age. During the first conversation, according to the linguist, Yogensha had asked what the drinking age was and the translator had replied. So when the foreigner informed him that he was eighteen, the Sandaime had the sinking suspicion that Yogensha was lying to get past the drinking age. Not that Sarutobi really cared about his exact age, it was just frustrating.

However, this little lie fitted perfectly into the plan formulating in the Sandaime's mind. As well as being the drinking age, eighteen happened to be the age that someone could take formal guardianship of a child. And so, after a thorough background check, Yogensha was approached with a deal. He had become friends with Naruto thus Sarutobi thought he would be great for a guardian, especially since Yogensha had no idea about Naruto's less than desirable tenant. In exchange for taking care of Naruto, Yogensha would receive lodging and a weekly allowance for all expenses.

Unfortunately, the council did not trust Yogensha as much as the Sandaime did. They demanded that he issue an anbu to make sure that Yogensha did not try to make off with the Kyuubi child. Sarutobi, seizing upon the opportunity, decided to kill two birds with one stone. His most talented anbu captain was developing some anti social tendencies and was avoiding all unnecessary human contact. So Sarutobi decided that he'd be the man for the job. Sarutobi had the man forgo the usual espionage of being far away and unseen. Instead, the man was to try to become friends with them so he could keep a better eye on the two. So it came to pass that Yogensha and Naruto Uzumaki made the acquaintance of one Hatake Kakashi.

**Eight and half years later**

Bodies lay strewn across the floor. The best Anbu guards the Lightning Country had to offer lay dead. Their captain made his final twitch, with his feet dangling above the floor while the last of his chakra was ripped from his body. The man responsible for the massacre let go of the captain's face and the body fell to floor in a heap. Not even paying attention to the newly made corpse, the red haired behemoth turned his attention towards the man cowering on the floor.

"Oh, how the mighty have fallen!" laughed the man eyeing the Raikage. His impossibly long sword dragged along the floor, its six foot blade covered in blood, a testament to the amount of men it had cleaved in two. His advance halted at the feet at the feet of the Raikage. "You chose the wrong day to indulge yourself in young girls." He said referring to Raikage's pedophilism.

As one the most influential and powerful people in all of the Lightning country, the Raikage had abducted small children at will and no dared to protest. Until today that was. The day before, the Raikage had spotted a beautiful and young girl in the market, and decided he had to have her. When he had her abducted, however, he did not expect the type of protest her guardian would give. About two and half hours after he learned of her abduction and the Raikage's intentions, the seven and a half foot swordsmen made no attempt to be discrete or stealthy in his effort to save the girl. Blowing open the front gates, the swordsmen stormed the castle. He cut a bloody path through the castle, Jounin, Chuunin, Anbu, servant, or secretary alike, were all cut down. He was quite indiscriminate and anyone who got in his way, intentional or not, died. Not one technique the Raikage and his Ninja's had seemed to have a lasting effect on the red head. He shrugged them all off and kept advancing, killing all opponents. Now only the Raikage remained and he was exhausted.

The man began to raise his blade, and in desperation, the Raikage raised his hands and cried out: "Wait! If you spare my life, I'll give all the money you desire." The swordsman ignored him and continued to raise his sword. It soon stopped though, and the red head looked around. Realising what his assailant was searching for, the Raikage spoke again. "If you're looking for the girl, she's in a different room, I can take you to her if you like but…" Any bargain the Raikage was thinking of vanished as he was violently hoisted off the floor and brought up face the giants cold steel gray eyes.

"Where is she?" he growled.

"The room beyond," gasped the Raikage. Being held up by the throat was hardly comfortable, and his assailants next action hardly helped to relieve the discomfort. In fact, being thrown through a wall probably only made his condition worse. Coughing as the red head stepped through the improvised doorway, he watched him peer around the room. Upon locating the girl, Miaka was her name, his full attention was once again fell upon the Raikage.

In a flash, his sword was against the Raikage's jugular. "If you have so much as touched her…" he growled pressing his sword against the Raikage's throat and drew a droplet of blood.

The Raikage was desperate. "Of course not," he stuttered, "she's still under the sleeping jutsu we put on her after her abduction."

A cruel smile returned to the swordsman's face. "Good. Then we can finish where I left off." Realising what was about to happen, the Raikage cried out once more and caused the swordsmen to pause.

"Wait! If you kill me, you'll become a wanted man. Anbu, hunter nin, and even bounty hunters will come after you. You'll never have a moments peace. But if you don't kill me, I won't report you and you'll be free to go with the girl. I assure you though, if you kill me, they will come." For a moment, the swordsmen stayed silent and the Raikage became hopefull. Then the swordsman spoke.

"Let them come."

**Present Day**

Team seven found itself sitting on the top of the academy building, its three students sitting on some steps while its two senseis sat on the railings. Kakashi decided to start things off the way he usually did. "Ok… let's start off with some introductions," stated Kakashi.

"What would you like to know?" asked Sakura curiously.

Kakashi shrugged noncommittally. "How about…your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, hobbies, stuff like that."

"Why don't you start us off sensei, show us how it's done," said Musha.

"Oh me……" drawled Kakashi, "My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no desire to tell you guys about my likes or dislikes. Dreams for the future…? I have lots of hobbies." Sakura and Musha stared in disbelief. _'All we learned was his name?_ Before they could object, however, Kakashi called on Naruto to continue. "Naruto, since you're the other sensei, why don't you introduce yourself to the rest of us."

"Well, as you know my name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like a lot of stuff but my favorite is Ramen. I don't dislike many things but the things I do dislike aren't important. My hobbies are training, sleeping, and reading. My goal," he paused and gave his already becoming trademark stupid grin, "is a well kept secret."

_'Well, his attitude sure has made a turn for the better in the last few years.'_ Kakashi thought to himself. "Okay, next," said Kakashi pointing at Sasuke.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are tons of things I dislike and I don't really like anything. And… I don't want to use the word dream, but I have an ambition, the resurrection of my clan…" sasuke's tone became darker, "and to kill a certain man."

'_I thought so_,' thought Kakashi grimly. He had expected it but he had hoped that the young Uchiha might turn out better. "Ok, now pinky." He indicated Sakura.

"My name is Haruno Sakura, and the things I like are…" she blushed and looked at Sasuke, "well, actually, the person I like is…" her blush only deepened and she stole another glance at Sasuke. "Um, should I say my dreams for the future? The things I dislike are the ones that come in the way of true love. My hobbies are…"

_'Stalking.'_ Finished Kakashi in his mind. He gave a mental sigh, _'Girls in this age are more interested in love than Ninjutsu.'_ He shifted his gaze to the last kid on the team. "Okay boy, you can go now."

"My name is Kushu Musha. I like watching movies and dislike reading books. I'm a real hands on guy. My hobby is building stuff. My goal for the future…hmmm," he paused for a moment, thinking, "I don't know. I guess I'm sort of goal less right now."

'_Talk about noncommittal'._ But now was Kakashi's favorite part. He gave them the regular speech on the real Genin test, on its sixty six percent of failure, the fact that they shouldn't eat breakfast or they'd puke, and where to be the next morning. The expressions on Sakura's face made Kakashi's day. After handing out the forms, Kakashi said goodbye and vanished in a puff of smoke. Naruto was far less dramatic in his exit and just walked off, yawning. With nothing else to do, everyone else returned to their respective homes.

**The next day**

Naruto sat in the tree, watching his three students becoming more agitated by the moment waiting for their senseis to arrive. Naruto had no wish to deal with the three until Kakashi came, and so he sat in the tree masking his presence and reading his new adventure novel. For two hours, he read his book and made great progress. In fact, the story was approaching its climax when he finally sensed Kakashi nearby. Sighing, he placed his book in his pouch, rolled out of his tree, and then left the forest by foot.

Sakura was pissed. Both Sensei's were late and she hoped to the Kami's that this wasn't turning into a pattern. What made her mood worse however, was the fact that when both sensei's did arrive, they arrived at the same time from opposite directions, and each gave an annoying "Yo." Turned out Musha shared her anger because after said "Yo", they both screamed "YOU'RE LATE!"

Neither Sensei gave an excuse for their lateness. Instead, Kakashi walked over to a stump and placed an alarm clock on it. "Okay, this clock is set for noon. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to get these bells from me before the alarm goes off." He showed them the two little bells for good measure, before tying them to his belt. "The people who do not get a bell will not get lunch." A large growling was heard from all three genin's stomach and Kakashi suppressed the urge to grin. "In fact, I'll not only tie you to a stump, but Naruto here will eat it in front of you." He gestured to Naruto who held up a large coil of rope and three Bento boxs. "As you may have seen, there are only two bells so at least one of you are going to get tied to one of those stumps. Moreover, if you fail to get a bell, you will fail this exam and be sent back to the academy. Remember this...if you want to pass, you must come at me with the intent to kill. Use shurinken, if you want. Naruto will be sitting this out. The exam starts... NOW!

**Well, that's chapter two, and thanks to everyone who reviewed. It was supposed to be longer, but I was hit by a sudden lack of motivation and stopped writing until someone told me to continue (can't get their name right now, the computer is messing up) and so I've started to write again. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto... irritatingly. It belongs to Kishimoto-sensei and a number of other people. So don't sue me. I write this for entertainment purposes only and not for monetary gain.**

**Now on to more pressing matters. To all the readers, sorry for this stupidly long wait. I am a weak soul and get easily distracted, thus I was never able to get going on this chapter. Please forgive me and continue to review. Thank you very much.**

**Chapter 3: To the land of Waves**

Little Naruto was ecstatic. Earlier that day, Yogensha had come to visit him and instead of playing with him like he usually did, the odd speaking stranger had lifted naruto onto his shoulders and just started walking out and away from the orphanage. He started to laugh when Naruto asked what was going to happen. Yogensha spoke slowly, his grasp of Nihongo not quite there yet.

"Naruto, you are going to live with me from now on." His accent was thick and it took Naruto a moment to understand. When Yogensha's words finally sunk in, Naruto screamed with joy and hugged his new guardian's face. Yogensha, now blind, tried to pry the child off his face. He finally succeeded in removing Naruto when a new character entered the scene.

"Ahhhhh, Kakashi. How good to see you." The now ex Anbu just waved. Kakashi's lack of response didn't deter Yogensha one bit. He continued on talking. "See Naruto, this is the other man who'll be staying with us. His name is Hatake Kakashi and he's a powerful ninja." Yogensha flexed his arm for good effect. Now Naruto didn't get Yogensha's entire sentence, but what he did was a name, and the fact that he was a ninja (something he'd never seen up close before). Naruto launched himself from Yogensha's shoulder, landed on the ground and fell down, but immediately got back up to admire the Ninja up close.

To say Kakashi was uncomfortable was an understatement. For a man whose last few years of contact with living humans dealt usually with terminating said humans, having a little four year old fawn over you was a bit much. He wasn't really sure what to do. The other human contact he had was with his subordinates, or his superiors, and he was pretty sure that was not how he was supposed to treat the kid. He might have just left under any other circumstance, but he was under orders. So he did what he saw a bunch of other adults do to kids. He reached down and ruffled Naruto's hair.

**The Present Day**

At midnight, off the coast of the country of fire, a small boat crept up to the shore. Three people were aboard. One man signaled to the other and the engine was cut. The boat glided into the shore. Once stopped, the third man got out into the waste deep water. "Are you sure you want to do this sir?" asked one man. "The Ruh'Fei did not give his consent to this mission." The man in the water reached back in and pulled out a sheathed sword and a bag.

"I'm fine. The Ruh'Fei won't punish you two for this. He knows how I operate. It's far better this way. If he tried to oppose me, I probably would have stolen a Jinrad, and I'm positive that would have pissed him off more. So don't sweat it, all I'm doing is following the instructions of Prophet anyway." The two crewmen hesitated but they knew he was right. "Now get going, before the coast guard arrives."

The two men saluted. "Good luck commander Devar." Devar pushed the boat off the sand bank, waiting in the cold water until he heard the faint sound of an engine moving back into open sea. He walked to dry land and sat under a tree. He used Tanrin to expel the water from his clothes. Now dry, he got up and traveled along the beach. It took him a few hours, but he finally made it to a small fishing village. It consisted of only a few hundred people, but it had an Inn and that was all Devar wanted. He bought himself a room and enjoyed every minute of it. After a quick power nap, he pulled out the scrap of paper he had carried for months now. The paper had only one sentence. "Find the land where the waves rule."

'_What the hell.'_ He thought, _'where in the world do the waves rule the land.'_ It was only after a quick look at the map that he slapped himself on the forehead. He muttered,

"To the country of Waves it is then."

**In Konoha**

Musha sat hidden in the bushes, growing more irate by the second. Their Sensei just sat on a log reading, not a care in the world. It had been almost an hour since the exam had started and still nothing had happened. Musha decided to rectify that.

He reached into his side pouch and drew out his shurinken and set to work. Twenty minutes later, Musha sat in a completely different place, with five multi colored marbles sitting in the palm of his hand. "Now to have some fun." He laid out the marbles on a flat rock, side by side, and then, without pomp or ceremony, crushed one. An audible twang resounded out from across the field as number of Shurinken flew out of the woods. Kakashi, still sitting on the log, nonchalantly moved over two feet and the projectiles flew wide. Musha, grinning, crushed the second marble. This time, Shurinken came out of two different places, forcing Kakashi to abandon his log. As Kakashi moved slowly away from the log, his face still buried in the book, Musha crushed the third marble. More shurinken flew out of the trees forcing Kakashi into the position he wanted him in. Musha, picking up the two remaining marbles, seized his chance when Kakashi was near enough. Racing out of the woods, Musha made a grab for the bells.

"No beating around the bush, eh? Nothing wrong with that though." Commented Kakashi as he dodged all of Musha's swipes with very little apparent effort. Much to the detriment of Musha's control over his anger, Kakashi continued to read his books. Kakashi was quick to note that Musha's attacks were becoming more and more centered on attacking his person rather than going for the bells. "You should really learn to calm down. It won't do you any good to get angry." These comments would only improve Musha's current disposition, naturally.

"Shut up!" By this time Musha had forgotten about getting the bells and was focusing only on Kakashi, launching kick after kick and punch after punch while his sensei only blocked or dodged. Unfortunately, one of his kicks took him too far and Kakashi, having side stepped it, ended up behind him.

"Lesson number one," intoned Kakashi, "Taijutsu." He closed his book and put his hands together in the seal of the tiger. Musha didn't have time to react as Kakashi yelled out, "Hidden Leaf Ancient Taijutsu Supreme Technique **1000 Years of Pain**." And so it was that Kutsu Musha was on the receiving end of the world's greatest ass poke. Yowling in pain as he flew threw the air, he landed in the nearby stream. At the bottom of said stream, still angry but common sense returning, Musha decided on a tactical retreat.

Moving over to the stream, Kakashi looked into the water. "Hmmmm…"

'_He seems to have retreated. I guess he's not a total idiot.'_

Up in the trees, Sasuke finally saw it. Kakashi had let his guard down. He wasted no time in throwing quite a few shurinken and kunai at his white haired sensei. They smashed right into Kakashi as the throwing weapons dug deep into flesh. For a second, Sasuke felt triumph, but that quickly evaporated with the same poof that revealed his kunai and shurinkens had hit a log. _'Crap. A kawarimi. He knows where I am now too.'_ Sasuke, like Musha before him, was forced to retreat to another position.

_'Where's Sasuke?'_ wondered Sakura as she raced through the woods. _'If I can just find him then, we can…'_ but her thought process was interrupted by a voice from behind.

"Hey Sakura." She was horrified to see it was Kakashi. Sakura came to a minute later.

_'Did I pass out? Where is Sensei?'_ She could have sworn she saw him a few seconds ago. The rustling in the bushes behind her caused her to whip around.

"Sa…sakura…help me.?" Moaned a mutilated Sasuke. Sakura, the image in front of her being quite graphic, screamed and fainted.

"Lesson number two, Genjutsu." said Kakashi reading his book. Lying on the ground, eyes blank, Sakura's mouth began to produce an obscene amount of foam. _'Hmmm, maybe I went too far?'_ He peered at the boy across the clearing. "Sakura easily fell for it."

"I am not the same as them." Answered Sasuke, with his back to Kakashi.

"Say that after you get the bells." Sasuke turned to face him. "An Uchiha and the class genius. This could be interesting." They stared each other down, and then in one quick move, Sasuke drew and threw his shurinken towards Kakashi. Kakashi dodged quickly. "Such predictable attacks are useless Sasuke. You of all people should know that." He saw one the shurinken cut a rope. _ 'A trap?'_ His inner question was answered by the number of kunai that came at him, and he was once again forced to dodge. Sasuke came at him again, with a vicious kick to the face. Kakashi caught the foot and held it, but Sasuke was hardly finished. He twisted around to deliver a punch, but it was caught as well. However, Sasuke tried to deliver another kick but that was again blocked by the hand gripping Sasuke's fist. Sasuke was now where he wanted to be, upside down and with his spare hand within reaching distance of the bells. He made a fast grab for them. _'WHAT, the bells.'_ Sasuke was fast, but Kakashi was far faster. In fact Kakashi had moved away so fast Sasuke was still in the air. Twisting himself around in time, Sasuke landed on his feet. _'Incredible. I didn't even get a chance to read Come Come Paradise.'_ "I'll acknowledge that your different from the others"

Sasuke ignored the comment and began doing the seals. Kakashi also realized what was happening. _'What! A genin shouldn't have enough Chakra to perform a jutsu like that.'_

**Goukakyuu no jutsu. ** The powerful fireball Sasuke unleashed engulfed the entire area Kakahi had been occupying. When the flames disappeared, Kakashi was nowhere to be found. '_Crap, where is he? Above? To the sides?'_ He couldn't see him.

"Below you." Sasuke felt a hand grab his ankle. **Doton. Shinjuu Zanshu no jutsu. **Sasuke glared up at the suddenly reappearing Kakashi, as he was now neck deep into the ground. "And that Sasuke, is lesson number three, Ninjutsu. I must say that your heads above the rest in this area." Kakashi turned around and walked away "But hey,they say an exposed nail should be hammered in." Kakashi laughed at his little jokes and began reading his book again. Sasuke could have sworn he heard a giggle.

_'Damn it, there's still such a large difference between us.'_ He didn't have along time to think since Sakura, who had long since recovered, soon barged out of the bushes and her eyes fell on Sasuke. She screamed something incoherent about severed heads, collapsed on the ground and her mouth once again began to produce an obscene amount of foam.

"Now isn't that a beautiful sight." Commented Musha coming out of the bushes from a different direction. "It seems like Kakashi got the better of us all."

"What do you want?" he growled.

"I want to discuss a way to beat Sensei." Answered Musha.

"And how do you expect to do that?" questioned Sasuke while pulling himself out of the hole.

"All three of us got our buts kicked, and that tells me that we can't do it alone. So instead, lets work as a team."

"I don't need anyone's help, I'll get the bells on my own." Sasuke had almost totally removed himself from the whole.

"Don't you think it's a bit odd." Sasuke looked at Musha again. "The fact that for each one of us, he stays one step ahead. He lets us get close and see the bells, and makes us think we have a chance of getting them, but he keeps them just out of our reach. It's almost as if he's pushing us towards something." Sakura, who had by now woken up again, was also listening. "I think its teamwork. He wants us to work together as a team to beat him."

Sakura was still unsure. "But there's only two bells. Not of all of us can pass. Why would he do that?"

"Probably to make us fight amongst ourselves. It's to impede our willingness to work together." Answered Musha, having already thought of that.

"Where are you getting these ideas." Sasuke had decided to stay to here the guy out.

"I take it you guys watch movies. This always happens. The bad guy will force the good guys into a situation where they start to fight amongst each other but only through working together will they beat him." He sighed. _'And here I thought that everyone knew that. Just my luck to be stuck with the only two kids in the world that don't watch movies.' _He stared at their faces, and found they were still unconvinced. _'Kuso. Well, time to seal the deal.'_ "How about this, if in fact, only two of us get to pass, you two can go on ahead and I'll go back to the academy." As Musha expected, it sealed it.

"Fine, lets do it." Grunted Sasuke, and once Sasuke agreed Sakura was quick join up too. Neither of them could see any downsides to it though they did wonder why Musha was so willing to let go of his chance at passing.

"Okay, were going to have to think of a plan to beat…" A loud ringing rang throughout the area and they realized their time was up. The realization that they all had failed hit them hard, and they dejectedly moved back to the place where they had begun the day. Kakashi, along with Naruto, were waiting.

"It seems that you guys failed to get the bells," said Kakashi, "and that means that you guys fail." This was what they had expected to happen.

"Wait a minute Sempai, I think they did rather well. Maybe you should pass them." With Naruto's suggestion, the genin's hope was refilled. They had a chance.

"Nope, they failed, pure and simple." Once again, their hopes were dashed and their faces fell, Kakashi and Naruto hid their grins.

"Ah, but I have evidence." Naruto drew out his tape recorder. His students hopes were refilled again. He played it, and they heard the conversation between Sasuke, Musha, and Sakura.

After hearing it Kakashi sighed. "I guess I have no choice," he whipped around and got right into his students faces, "but to pass you guys." It looked like he was smiling beneath his mask and Sakura and Musha cheered. Sasuke just smirked.

"So the purpose of the exam was teamwork sensei?" asked Sakura.

"Exactly." Answered Naruto.

"We didn't have any teamwork though." This time it was Musha.

"Ah, but you guys had settled your differences and were beginning to plan. Its unfortunate that time ran out. Anyway, teamwork is essential to all Shinobi missions. Without teamwork, no matter how powerful a ninja, the mission will fail in some fashion or the other. Just because you succeeded in completing the goals, it doesn't mean that it was a success. If for example, you were ordered to assassinate a man and you succeed in killing him, but you and your team are killed in the process, then that, in my books, is failure." Naruto just looked over at Kakashi who continued.

"Those who break the rules and codes of the ninja world are called trash. But you know what, those who don't take care of their comrades," he tilted his head up to look at the sky, "are lower than trash."

**A few days later**

A twenty something year old man walked out the liquor store, his age hard to discern. Anyone who saw him would just as soon forget him, and those who did remember him would find their memories of the man just a blur. Or at least, that's what the genjutsu was supposed to do.

"Aren't you a bit young for drinking Naruto?" asked Sarutobi from behind the man. There was a poof, and naruto stood their, grinning sheepishly.

"Oh come on Old man, why do you care if I drink or not?" Ignoring Naruto's protests, he snatched the bottle out of the young jounin's hands.

"One, it's too early for drinking, and two, knowingly letting a minor like you drink would be murder on my conscience. Besides, where is the rest of your team." Stated Sarutobi as he put the bottle away.

Naruto put on a bored look. "Out fetching the Lord's wife's cat again. I mean, can't the woman keep a hold on that bloody cat. I've heard it's the sixth time this month." Sarutobi was not about to tell him that it was actually the eleventh. But seeing how the woman treated it, he was surprised it hadn't done it more often.

"Now Naruto, the Lord's family is one of our village's greatest patrons, and it would not bode well to speak ill of them."

"I'm getting bored Old man. Can't you give us a C ranked mission. I mean, team seven has two jounins, it's not like anything will happen on a C that we can't handle." Sarutobi considered it. Naruto's argument made sense and it wouldn't hurt to let team seven have a little more varied experience. He motioned Naruto to follow him back to the Hokage's tower. About an hour later, Naruto watched as team seven returned, Musha looking particularly scratched up. He also bore witness to the reunion between the cat team seven had just caught and the Lord's wife. He gave it a day before the cat tried to escape again.

Sarutobi looked over at team seven. "Well team seven, it looks like it's your guys lucky day. Naruto here has impressed upon me the idea that you guys are ready to try a C ranked mission. It's to protect a certain individual." He tossed Kakashi the scroll and looked towards the opening door.

A man stepped through the door and looked at team seven. "What's this, are these the people who are supposed to protect me. They're just a bunch of brats." He took a swig from the bottle of Sake he was carrying.

"And who are you sir?" asked Sakura politely. Kakashi meanwhile passed the mission scroll to Naruto.

"I'm the super expert bridge builder, Tazuna. I expect you guys to give me super protection until I get back to my country and finish the bridge I'm building." He finished his speech with another drink of Sake.

Naruto stared at the writing on the scroll. _'To the country of Waves it is then.'_


End file.
